we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become a former cia officer who blew the whistle on america's story sure program on just an hour waiting to serve to help years in prison talks to altie about what he believes is behind his sentence. as the french top its miniature operation in mali as a success we'll bring you some chilling stories from the three week long battle against islam that's. serious threatening to retaliate for an israeli air strike inside its territory while its ally iran says they'll be a repercussions over that. international news live from moscow this is all she was me thanks for joining us

fast a former cia officer turned whistle blower sentenced to two and a half years behind bars awaiting to start his jail time john kiriakou was the first official to publicly confirm the agency's use of waterboarding and condemned as torture so he was convicted for revealing a covert officers identity to a journalist although in one of his final interviews before being locked away he told r.t. his crime was simply speaking out against the government. first of all my case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but

once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime and have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few

weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. and joan kiriakou is also a guest on abby mountains breaking the said he how it all seems so don't miss the extensive interview details of the case and its implications later today. do you think that the real people who oversaw codified torture john knew alberto gonzales and donald rumsfeld shouldn't they be the ones sitting in prison they should be the ones and there are others even if you just put aside the people who actually did the day to day torture what about the people who conceived of the policy and who implemented the policy were the attorneys that papered over it with with crazed legal analysis or the man who who destroyed evidence of the torture in the tapes.

france's hayling it's made the trim mission against islamist rebels in mali as a success but this three week long intervention has also created more havoc in the conflict on the country and some chilling stories are emerging as a local reporter gonzalo told our city. the war became a real nightmare for the people of this small city in the segura region it was one of the first places bombed by french warplanes before more jihadists arrived sweeping south towards the capital by marco the french intervention left a pile of debris and ashes that's just the visible traces of the war they left it's a billions who were left of the scars that will last a lifetime one family paid a deep price for this conflict against the islamist terrorists one of the family sons was killed by a jihadist soldier inside his own home. one brother was attacked by a group of militants the ridge children among them he started running and got back

into our house but they followed him one of the children fired at him but missed and then another insurgent shot him inside the house my brother fell and was riddled with bullets we laid his body in the house we couldn't bury him because we were afraid to go outside. just because this is just one example of the terror that the conflict is putting mali and civilians through plaguing the weakest the most no one was surprised when india bali once jihadist troops arrived it was discovered that the majority of the military were heavily armed child soldiers. so the french banks mylan government forces are increasingly accused of atrocities during the gulf it with the rebels and on r.t. dot com you'll find some exclusive images allegedly showing evidence of war crimes by the troops and there were also have war stories from people on the ground about how they're living through they are western led battle against islam is that. u.s. president barack obama's pick for the country's next defense secretary has gone out

of his way to persuade the senate is the right man for the job one a target for his previous fuse on statements at the confirmation hearing chuck hagel made it clear he will act in accordance with white house policies if his candidacy is approved dati is again their church i can listen to the session which brought some heated discussion but little hope of change. chuck hagel bent backwards to show how mainstream his views are the senators kept accusing him of not being mainstream enough and they kept using the word mainstream over and over again during this hearing chuck hagel has walked back on a number of positions he had taken earlier he kept apologizing again and again and chuck hagel went to great lengths to show that he is in no way going to challenge washington's core foreign policy beliefs as one of the senators put it it was quite an exhausting hearing considering the senators were asking almost the same questions and roughly eighty percent of them had to do with chuck hagel previous

statements on israel and iran there was so much mentioning of israel that at some point they were confirming him as secretary of defense for israel i couldn't count how many times he said all options are on the table with regards to iran again and again saying a strike on iran is an option an option that he had previously called irresponsible by the way here's what chuck hagel kept repeating throughout the hearing get the united nations behind you get the international sanctions behind you keep military options on the table if the military option is the only option it's the only option one of the senators pointed out during the hearing that in a private conversation senator hagel recently told him that he thought sanctions didn't work and previously chuck hagel voted against sanctions but today's chuck hagel as we found out during this hearing is for sanctions to those who believe mr haye go was in favor of direct negotiations with iran as he had previously claimed he was he offered a correction

a very vague one he tried to blur his response as much as he could here's what he said i don't have a problem with engaging i think great powers engage engagement is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not appeasement engagement is not sure under so no direct negotiations with iran here's another example of how chuck hagel had to walk back on some of his. previous statements at one time he said and this has become a famous quote the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of is world and of quote here's chuck hagel during this confirmation hearing he noted that i. that i should have used another term and i'm sorry and i regret it i mean do your use of intimidation. i should have used influence. i think would have been more appropriate i should not have said dumb or stupid. because i understand

appreciate there are different views in these things it was like torture watching the hearing because it seemed as if the senators were not there to question chuck hagel but they were there to break him because they kept going back to his previous statements and pushing and pushing until he said what they wanted to hear and he did it so whoever thought chuck hagel was going to offer a new outlook on u.s. foreign policy after this hearing would seriously doubt that. always interested in your view on the topics we cover so to go do go to r.t. dot com and vote in our online poll so let us know why you think hegel's stance on iran has become more hawkish and here we are this is what we hear and what we see these are the options we can offer you so admitting a strike on iran is a viable option is a genuine change of heart for the next one it's just the ploy to counter criticism

of being anti israel and also his change of stance doesn't matter as he wouldn't have influence on iran policy anyway and of course last one it proves his own claim that no one can stand up to the jewish lobby and let's now have a look at how the opinion is divided almost the whole voters think hegel's given in to pressure a sort of you believe his opinion doesn't make any difference anyway also a little less than thirty say just a ploy to get the job and only a tiny minority view things that he has genuinely changed his position so go to r.t. dot com to have your say and have a prompt is the change in hague rhetoric many experts believe even if he wants to change u.s. foreign policy he'll struggle to do so. you know obama was elected in two thousand and a we you know the same kind of hope to ms and was there with a shutting down good moment ending these wars and fighting the right kind of wars but then we find out when you know after the deal is done after the elections are

over the nomination process is over we continue with our war footing around the world no matter what the politicians come before those cameras and tell you what the key factors are that we need to take care of it be a social safety nets or the economy or or jobs being created in this country the united states will always have money for two things you can be rest assured bakers and bullets we already see the headlines coming out of the mainstream media talking about the sequester and how this is going to get our military we will have nonstop propaganda being a bombarded out of the people the fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that whoever is secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spending us into have you. ever look at carrying a communications satellite has fallen into the pacific ocean shortly after blasting off from the sea based launch site on dates reported to the rocket followed the

wrong possum immediately after take health and from on the life here in the studio by aussies igor piece going off igor nice to see so what sat chilly go wrong again that. well i'm going to try to explain it but first it was the be using a three cell rocket carrying an american communications satellite and while it blasted off from the odyssey floating platform work almost straight away went off course triggering this emergency system which shut down its engines and the whole thing ditched into the pacific ocean yes and why was it launched from a platform in the ocean in the pacific well so you go all things happening around the equator and the idea is. that the earth's rotation speed gives rockets additional looks so ration and while this project. exists since one thousand nine hundred five it's an international project between russia

ukraine norway and the united states there have been thirty four successful launches throughout these years but through all this year it was the first launch or unfortunately it was unsuccessful through either the commission which is ecstatic stablish in the details of exactly what went wrong. going off igor thank you very much indeed for that update of course we'll be talking to you later again for more details of course thank you. and still ahead for you this hour they conflict church in germany loses why should the softer mooing more alleged cases of child abuse by priests hit the headlines. and also this hour report on the risk of genetically modified food but why its main produce might not have anything to worry about thousands more after a short break. its

technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future avar. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you. know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations are all today.

this is the line from moscow welcome by syria and iran to return it against israel for a strike on syrian territory syria claims israeli warplanes hit a military research center near damascus killing two while the u.s. says the drought started a military convoy heading for neighboring lebanon his policy is monitoring developments from other vapors the syrian ambassador to lebanon did say that it was not clear when ever tell you would happen and that it was up to the powers that be to decide on such decisive action but he did say that it was an option and that it was and would be a surprise now the iranian deputy foreign minister has also stated that this israeli attack has serious implications for the israeli city of tel aviv and those

are indeed quite harsh warnings what we understand from syria from syria and sources is that the israelis hit a research center not far from the capital city of damascus and that at least two unsigned workers were killed there are also reports that the strike hit a convoy of weapons that was making its way from syria to lebanon and now washington reportedly was warned by israel obvious intention to strike inside syria this kind of comment coming from a high ranking american official who has spoken on condition that he not be named it is important to mention that a couple of months ago iran's revolutionary guard did say that assad had friends in the region who had not yet entered the fray the quote was that these friends were poised to strike out in case there was an intervention in syria but we have know come into it from televisual simply no comment from washington moscow hosted if

indeed these raids did strike inside syrian territory it is a gross violation of the united nations charter. doraine in a car demick and political analyst mohammad marandi says a zero should take it one as a warning of repercussions seriously. what is important is that the united states knew about their strike before they did nothing about it the european union as usual is silent about it there is no condemnation for killing syrians two for bombing the country for of course iran world the syrian sovereignty iran and many means to hurt israelis and to punish the israelis it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be involved directly they could. support countries or bodies that could make life for israelis more difficult and let's not check some other international news in brief this hour an explosion has killed twenty one

people and left more than one hundred injured at the mexico city headquarters of pemex the state owned oil company the figures have been confirmed on the company's twitter account some people reportedly remain trapped inside the building local media say a gas leak may have caused the blast in september an explosion of the company's natural gas facility in northern mexico left thirty people dead. government opposition in egypt is calling for further mass protests some friday that's despite reaching an agreement with the muslim brotherhood to renounce the violence and demonstrations across the country the condemnation came at a meeting attended by government officials as well as the heads of the liberal and secular opposition movements at least sixty people have been killed and demonstrations marking the second anniversary of president mubarak's i was there were. a standoff between police and demand holding a five year old child hostage in a bunker in rural alabama has entered its third day the boy was taken earlier this

week when a gunman shot dead a school bus driver after he refused to let the youngster off the vehicle they suspected kidnapper is a retired sixty five year old truck driver the boys apparently unharmed. in germany was. turning their back on the catholic church with the number of attendees falling over rapidly at the lack of action over claims of child abuse is just one reason earlier this month the church dropped an investigation into alleged sexual abuse cases committed by priests and you might find some of the details and peter all of his reports disturbing. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in one nine hundred seventy nine when i was invited to his house he locked the doors and forced me to drink what i now know was alcohol. he asked me what i thought of his penis which was

a record then the priest made me perform oral sex on him. the catholic church in germany is facing a crisis attendances dropped significantly over the past few years according to the central committee of german catholics one hundred eighty thousand parishioners stopped going to mass in twenty ten alone many citing church hierarchy unwillingness to do enough about claims of abuse like the ones made by wilfred the priest at the center of this particular scandal is now being moved to a different parish while this church where its alleged abuses took place remains closed to worshippers but just how difficult is it to bring a criminal prosecution in cases like this if those people go to court now it's very difficult to get to a sentence because the weakness is sometimes died in between the memory has got lost and so those attempts to get to have

a trial usually fail christine pfeiffer had been in charge of an extensive study into abuse in the german catholic church dating back as far as nineteen forty five his research claims that the church destroyed files on priests involved in abuse up to ten years also that twelve hundred victims were paid hush money not to reveal what happened to them he was dismissed after a dispute with a senior cleric over what information would be made public the scandal that this research is no not going to be finished. it's causing problems to them as well now they're losing members because of the new headlines of the last few weeks there are those within the church that recognize the importance of transparency if lapsed catholics are to be brought back into the flock. a woman in new york really going to when we do not make things clear there will always be an aftertaste that

something is being covered up this will harm attempts to get people into church because it is a bad foundation for trust and all belief is based on trust and. for wilfrid that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot to the church a good he's committed to getting compensation for himself and those others who claim they were abused by people who were supposed to be in a position of responsibility peter all over r.t. germany. and as always there's much more stories for you on line including one that says north korea allegedly imposes martial law urging its army to prepare for war so i had to r.t. dot com to see if the korean peninsula is on the brink of a military conflict. also that internet users beware millions of devices are now in danger of being an easy pick for hype is due to software malfunction that's been known about for some time.

as have protested outside a shareholder meeting at the headquarters of one of america's notorious genetically modified food producers monsanto protesters demanded more transparency in the company's labeling research and business practices and made concerns over the safety of a dram crops but adam i did a shareholder in wall santo believes as long as such companies financially support politicians and risk a big brushed under the carpet. these chemicals may be what's causing higher rates of cancer and that's why as nation nations across the globe we know that it causes tumors in rats that were fed in long term food studies last year i was it will speak during the meeting and this meeting is closed to the public and we one of the

things are asking for is in the future this live streamed people around the world care about what's going into the food they may not want to own monsanto stock i only bought stock so i could speak the share or meaning the company knows already about there are genetically modified crops which many say food activists believe make us more reliant on herbicides and chemicals that the company also sells the genome companies give heed massive donations food politicians on an annual basis they are very active in the political system so by spending tens of millions of dollars even hundreds of millions of dollars on elections. that it's not the politicians are not going to prioritize rejecting crops. and have a head for yates breaking the set without a mask. you

know i can kind of sort of understand the mindset of an evil dictator i have trouble understanding what is going on or maybe not going on in the minds of the terrified cogs who believe all the propaganda give up all their rights for the illusion of safety to coach jerry seinfeld who are these people well maybe some of them may be working at your local school braindead bureaucracy zombies at a pennsylvania school suspended a kindergartner note kindergartner as a terrorist threat because she threatened to shoot another student with a gun that shoots soap bubbles i guess this was all a mix up because the girl she wanted to shoot didn't understand that it was in reference to bubbles and not bullets children in kindergarten can often misunderstand things but the administration of the school seems to be no smarter than six year olds immediately going into total panic mode guess what this is

hardly the first time that something like this has happened remember the kid who pointed a piece of chicken at a teacher and said bang the thing is that the real terrorism of the event is that the mental sleeves of fear propaganda that work at these schools are raising a generation of children to be just like them somebody shoot me with a bubble gun that's just my opinion. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how bad the. and i believe that i'm still really messed up. and we're all very sort of actually

. a. little worse for the little thing the white house chief of a. radio guy and for a minute. i want what we're about to give you've never seen anything like this until it. gets out and i mean martin this is breaking set the record of the commerce department u.s. g.d.p. you drop point one percent last quarter making it the weakest since the recession add this to the fact that the bureau of labor statistics is reporting more than twelve million americans remain unemployed while well surely the white house is feeling the economic squeeze actually not so much but the economy shrinking and unemployment persistent the obama administration is the cited to shut down its job council.